For the past couple of months I’m becoming less enthused about going into SW. Rods are not being stock, tackle has become bare bones. I don’t even know what’s up in the hunting department since all my interest is fishing these days. My son informs me SW in Sacramento is operating same way so it must be all over. They were struggling to stay afloat 6-8yrs ago and closed a few stores. After restructuring with more and newer stock they looked promising to hang around. I know covid has played part in keeping stores stocked but empty shelves don’t keep the customers flowing in. I won’t be going back under this situation. Has anyone heard if this could be DOOM & GLOOM for SW?
They are posting on the web for a bunch of jobs in SLC and elsewhere. The Saint George is maybe half stocked so it’s widespread. I know a lot of manufacturers shut down due to COVID and I bet it’s just tough getting new inventory. For example bike shop down here has sold out and new mountain bikes won’t be available until October at best. Probably same issue hitting SW. That said I haven’t seen Scheels having a issue with inventory to the extent SW is.
Yep, the few stores in Idaho that I go to are the same. I’ve just started building my own fishing rods and lures, found it to be cheaper and don’t have to depend on stores having what I want in stock.
I’ve had good luck ordering from Sportsman’s website, got everything in about a week.
I’m the fishing manager at the Riverdale Sportsman’s, but don’t tell the company, I am also good friends with a couple of Cabelas managers in other states. LOL
All of us in the industry are being hit hard. I hear the question at least a dozen times a day “are you going out of business?”. :huh: My normal answer is ‘no more than Walmart’ when they ran out of toilet paper. The same thing that caused the toilet paper to run out has caused fishing, hunting, kayaks, canoes, LIFE JACKETS, and on and on and on to run out. Yes, it is COVID-19. People are doing outdoors things at a rate never seen before. :s
I tell people that we in the industry sit on a three legged stool. Remove one leg and you are pretty unstable. Remove two and you pretty much can’t stay up. Remove all three and you are flat on your behind. :idea:
Leg one was the fact that we brilliant Americans have 70% plus of our fishing, hunting, camping, etc., made overseas, especially China. SW, and our competitors, have no control over that. China got the COVID-19 first and production stopped. Even other companies that make most of the product in the US, like Berkley PowerBait, still get components/ingredients from other sources overseas. Leg one broke.
Leg two was the fact that when product is shipped, it goes by, oh ya, “ship”. The ports they go to when the product is made in Asia are Washington, Oregon, and California. Anyone watching the news knows that those three states are pretty much not allowing anyone to work. Ships are being unloaded slowly at best, and the product is staged in local Warehouses that are also pretty much not being worked. Leg two broke.
Leg three, if it even mattered, is the number of people buying outdoor sports product. Our fishing sales are off the charts, way way above normal. Cases in point is PowerBait. I was out, so very out, so I got company permission to order on their credit card some for Memorial Day, way over our cost, and sale price, just to have something for the Holiday. It was sold out in a few hours, lost money doing it, but we wanted to serve our customers for what we thought would be a very short outage. We were out for several weeks after that but we got a huge Pallet of PowerBait, and several direct ships. We got enough to last a normal summer and then some, but it sold so fast we had to put a 4 jar per customer limit. We are out again, but hoping to get more soon. Just please don’t ask me when, my prediction methods are not working. I and my wife traveled the Northern part of the State, and we found some, small shipments here, small shipments there, and I have directed my customers to competitors when I could. How about sinkers? Same story, I am not sure that there is any to buy in the state. We were out for a long time, got a huge shipment and filled our pegs, and it was all gone in a little more than a week. Every direct shipment, every shipment from our Distribution Center, we hope, we hope hard. I told my customers where I saw sinkers as well, but was told by one competitor to STOP. 47 customers asked about PFD’s/life jackets on Friday. Normally have over 600 in the store, but I have not been able to get more than 8 or 10 each week for over a month. No buyer, no planner, no manufacture could have planned for this increase in sales.
Each of those legs by themselves would have made any of our stores look sick, empty, bare, but with all three legs broken we are just trying to find a way to right ourselves.
Feel free to check out all of the competitors. I could give you the list, but many of you can check out your local store and confirm what I am saying.
I will say this much, plans are in the works for SW to step up to the plate, which means the other Brands are doing the same. WE ALL get freight in, and we all get different freight in each shipment. Maybe we will get sinkers this shipment, maybe one of our competitors will, but odds are that someone will get some, and when they do, they will be sold out fast.
This has been a year from He!!. I have been verbally assaulted for being out, called a liar, called lazy and told we had it in the back room, and I could go on. My competitors are the same, and I feel for them. Many competitors were shopping in my store when they ran out, as I did theirs. Now we all just complain to each other. :s
To answer the question, the problem is not limited to Sportsman’s Warehouse, or to our competitors in Utah. It is coast to coast, North to South. Just when we think we see the light at the end of the tunnel, the tunnel seems to get longer.
But, we at Sportsman’s will continue to offer the best customer service possible, with what we have to provide. I expect that the other Brands are trying to do the same. I am told that COVID-19 will end, someway, somehow, and I look forward to that day. But, please note, it will not go away quickly, and the shelves will not get stocked quickly either. But, we will stock the shelves as fast as we possibly can.
I beg of you, please be kind to my employees when you visit, and be kind to the employees of my competitors as well. We are all doing what we can as fast as we can. And as for Riverdale, I would take offense if you did not say hi if you come in. Ask for Steve; if I don’t have what you need, I can at lest complain about it with you. 
Now, get out their and social distance. Is it not interesting that most fishing rods are over 6’ long, the suggested distance. It must be a sign. 
Thanks for the input Steve, kinda surmised that it was supply issue for the stores, but didn’t get much of a answer when I asked at the store. Hopefully stores can get back on track again soon.
Thank you Steve for your detailed explanation.
*"**With the unfortunate **scale back of stocking shelves and sales limited *also effects employee work hours to furloughs to unemployment. I sincerely hope it doesn’t come to any of that especially the latter."
At SW, we have not been reducing hours or doing furloughs. We have been overwhelmed so far with customers. Even on 7.19.20 Fishing in my store was so busy that we had people buying fishing rods out of a shopping cart we were using to price some rods that came in late Saturday. I can’t speak to other stores or my competitors, but from what I have seen it has actually been harder with reduced inventory. People getting angry, wanting something we don’t have, wanting to know where they can get it. It is time consuming and exhausting, and we have absolutely no control over it. :rolleyes:
*A side note, I have heard that “stores canceled their orders early on…” or some version of it. Were that true, the “stores” that did not do it would be flush with all of the product the others canceled. There is just none of those store that exist with all of that excess product. It would make sense from a bean counter point of view (accountants). If you thought that sales would collapse with no one being able to buy, it would make sense. The problem is that it takes months to negotiate prices and sales at this level and canceling takes as long. Bean Counters simply could not have enforced the plan, even though on paper it made sense. *
*As for Amazon, they have been a good source for a lot of people, but even they are drying up. A lot of people are complaining to me that items they ordered and expected in days are taking weeks or are being canceled. Yes, it is that far reaching. My own father’s day present is one of those casualties. *
The statement that SW, or our competitors, are “scaling” back stocking is misleading. Scaling back implies that we have chosen to not stock, receive, or buy. If we could get it, it would be out. Our companies would be rolling in the dough if it were possible. One chain of store might mess up and “scale back”, but all of the chains would not have made that mistake.
Yes, hunting is also suffering, but at least most of the hunting is not “China” driven. It is still largely made on foreign soil, but lots of the problem is still plain old fear, and plain old “I got to get outside and I have got to do it now”. Between my fishing, and my shooting, I am part of the problem as well. I can’t spend my money on other things and my wife wants me out of the house (something about bouncing off the walls). But if you have ever sit on a three legged stool, I bet you know what loosing two out of the three legs would be like. 
Right now, as stated, if it is outside sports related, it is in short supply. I am old enough to remember when most of the stuff was made in the good ole USA. I sure wish it still was. :@
That’s good that hours haven’t been cut, furloughs aren’t fun. The store in Twin Falls is low on fishing and hunting equipment, ammo and powder was out except for a few obscure calibers. The food processing aisles was about the only thing that had ample stock. I have ordered a rod and reel combo, reel and braided line from the website that I had no problem getting. I have also ordered stuff from Amazon that I haven’t had a problem getting either, but a lot of that has been lure blanks. Only problem ordering is my crawfish plastic mold that has been on backorder for awhile, hopefully it’ll show up soon.